The icecream truck passed my house right as the video was ending and I was graced with the lines “watch the horror in his eyes” accompanied by the happiest music I’d ever heard
Jesus Christ is Lord. Please read at least three books of the Bible. The first book of each testament and one you chose yourself. As you do practice forgiveness. It is important
@@zelord5080 revenants are effectively dead people who self revive because they spite somebody, and they will literally pursue people for a full year as if they were alive until the double tap is secured.
I got such a pissed off look when I did that as a DM. I had the villain's top lieutenant attack the party to cover the villain and some other lackeys retreat from the stronghold. Well I have told my players I don't always play important fights with the "Hit 0 and they are dead" rule that we use most of the time for mobs, random encounters on the road sure but important set piece fights its a normal fight. So I had the top lieutenant be a cleric and had his spell list all set up. He was a healing and cc focused cleric and he used his spells accordingly. He has three people with him two fighters and a warlock all suitable levels for the party to fight. The moment they dropped one of the fighters to low health (not quiet death but close) and the cleric used his readied action to cast Cure critcal Wounds (Now the players knew they were expected, and I had used up two of the casters 3rd level spells to use Sacred Bond on both Fighters so he could heal them at range) they got very upset that I had the cleric healing his wounded minions when they just spent all that time and resources to drop the guy. Who they did eventually beat of course but he nearly dropped one of them. They where shocked I had the bad guys healing themselves and not just letting their HP drop.
@@TheLastSane1 over my time as a player, I’ve realized that Bosses and their Highest Lieutenants having only 1 or 2 Common, Uncommon, or MAYBE Rare Health Potions doesn’t feel too annoying because they can’t spam them Pokémon Elite Four-style, but having thematically-fitting abilities to heal them just a bit while maybe also giving them a tiny buff for 1 Round can make the fight much more interesting and fun!
Best fun I've had with it is when the BBEG came up multiple times, escaped each time, then found some common ground with the party against the BBBEG _and joins their side_
@@opus5770 ohh. Got it lol. That sounds pretty cool though; it's a nice twist for sure. Being able to turn the BBEG but not nullifying the main threat completely I'd pretty satisfying and doesn't come off as anticlimactic; reminds me of Dragon Age Origins.
@@skapunker96 awesome, I haven't played DAO but I've heard good things! My inspiration for that scenario was from Final Fantasy 9-one of the recurring enemies switches to the party's side, which was such a great and dramatic turn! Have you played it?
Same happens in chrono trigger if you ever played it there is a threat to the planet and magus is trying to summon them then there are a few battles then you get an option to battle them or have them join and they are a good character to have with high pdmg and mdmg and hp and mp tried to avoid spoilers Incase you haven't seen the story or played the game and it's best blind
To quote Zee Bashew, “If it was easy to kill a high-level Necromancer, you didn’t kill them.” They’ve 100% got a bunch of clones stored up somewhere. Be neat if it started as an easy combat and they got harder and harder as the Necromancer adapted to the players’ strategies, and started running out of clones (they do take a while to grow.)
Another good way to make your villain "recurring" is to not have them _actually_ appear, have them be mentioned or make contact with the party, make them one-too-many steps ahead of the party and have them have a hand in as much as reasonably possible My DM did this last campaign with Agni- a Demon Prince disguised as a wine merchant and inspired by Gaunter O'Dimm Bastard was _everywhere,_ so much of the story just tied back to him in increasingly creative and surprising ways
I once played a campaign where our party noticed a swirling mist from time to time in various locations, only realizing later that it was a mage using Gaseous Form. By that point, he already knew everything we did, and had seen us fighting. Gooood times, it was so unexpected
I imagine a villain that has many contingency plans but always ends up with some battle scar after facing the party like they are drove to a Cliff side where they are hanging on to the side and as someone takes the last swing at them they drop cutting off their arm only to come back with a new mechanical next time
I once made a villain that was a psychic snail and used illusions to make small enemies appear, while "attacking" with magic as the illusions attacked. The illusions were "So real" (due to bad rolls) that the snail continued to live after each encounter. And every time he appeared I made the joke "You killed my father, prepare to die" even tho it was the same snail. Though the players never knew this.
How many times did they encounter him? And hust how bad was your players perception (or luck) that they didn't notice they where fighting illusions for what I am assuming was atleast 3 encounters?
See, this is how you introduce the aboleth family, that all have a perfect recollection of how you slaughtered big Toby and have been prepping to ice you.
The Main BBEGs in the campaign I run and their siblings are of a Homebrew race to where they posses bodies of those that attune to their artifacts over time. When they kill the person wielding their item, they only kill the body they were using. Reason for this is because they can no longer manifest their actual bodies with all of their powers in the material plane. If they do, it is to interact a small bit physically with some objects. (Though this only happens if part of their plane is in the area/ a crack in reality) For the most part their actual bodies that can be killed are in the Astral Plane/ a Dream Like plane to where they can bring those that are asleep their while they rest to speak to them.
We had this character who was a friend to the party but him and the wizard got drunk and the wizard stabbed his eye out with a wand of magic missile, he came back in the next campaign as a demilitch and was hilariously easy to defeat but his spirit kept haunting the party, but every time his spirit came back he would just whine and sulk about not being able to get revenge
Always have a goblin or Cobalt named Jerry that seems to follow around some of the bad guys. Trust me the love jerry, the one that adopt Jerry don't let them adopt Jerry. Let them see what they cannot have!
That one menace that manipulated good people into being the "bad guys" and baited the heroes, just to at least kill or give a nasty scar to one of them: *Maniacal laughter intensifies.*
Players killed BBEG on their first encounter with her. They realized her bounty was worth more alive than dead so they used Revivify after making sure she couldn't attack
Another thing that I have done that I feel is a fun way to have a reoccurring villain, is either they do make a great escape, there's a way to clone them, or kind of like how shadow of war does it make them come back but now they're changed, perhaps deformed in some way and now have a different way they attack. I do think that limiting that villain to maybe only being the bad guy for a few levels at a time is probably good. And making sure they have a solid send-off is a way to end that reoccurring villain.
I don't know if it was this channel or another one, but I heard a super good idea that I plan on using for my campaign where there is like an intermediary between life and death (name is optional) where the players enter after death and instead of fighting to return, they have to travel through a false reality, slowly finding all their weapons and armor and such until they come to one final character, the only one that appears in all the players' distinct realities. This character recognizes the inherent good in the party, contrasts it with the villain, and then offers up some reason to prevent the villain from ever returning from death. It's a really good idea (that, again, isn't mine) that heavily introduces the players to the idea of consequences and even death within a regular playthrough, but still offers new DMs like myself a safety blanket from TPKs.
So... I had a player bring an Evil character to my first session, over time we realised that character really didn't fit well with the rest of the party(obviously because he wanted to help Orcus destroy everything) So now, his new character is joining the party after that character just left without a trace, stupid stealth score on a paladin, so now he is going to be a problem for later in the story
I had a campaign where my reoccurring enemy was..... Cows. The players went out of there ways to first find two cows and kill them even when food was provided for them and then fought like 5 cows later that same session. The peace was only restored by one of the players, who wasn't part of what initially happened and hasn't fought any of the cows later on, befriending one of them, making both sides drop the bloodshed for the sake of there friendship
My players once snuck into a cultists hideout where their leader was creating powerful undead stitched together with animal parts. They got caught halfway through and after setting the sleeping quarters on fire with the cultists still inside. Released a half giant who’s legs where replaced with an elephants giving him a brutal charge attack. While the undead giant rampaged through the hideout they ambushed the cult leader and “broke his arms and legs so he’ll stop hitting us with fireballs”. Once they captured him they decided to bring him back to the nearby city for a reward. A city that currently had an army on its way to siege it. They got their reward and escaped the siege of the city but now have a very very pissed off cult leader in a steampunk wheelchair sending assassins after them.
Reminded me of the nemesis system they use in shadow of Mordor. Kill them with fire and then they become like charred or become a fire creature when they come back
My party is dealing with a recurring villain, but they don't know it. They've met him a dozen times, they just don't know he's the BBEG. Because he's a Rakshasa occupying three different personalities and identities. When they finally realize he's the baddie and pin him down, they'll have a way to permakill him, and, hopefully, solve a lot of problems all at once.
The Cultists horror as he realizes that, not only has he been Counterspelled, but the fighter is next on the turn order and is stood right next to them.
"those who inhereted the curse of the zenin family and the one who couldn't fully leave that curse behind they would all bear witness to the bear flesh of someone who is free to the one who left it all behind and his overwhelming intensity"
I don’t play D&D for the lack of friends, but I feel like the lich from adventure time is a great example. I think his character is do great bc of one big fact, he doesn’t talk much, just mostly acts, but we know he can talk bc of his victims and talking too the protagonist. So much mystery.
You mean like the way the recycled Miles Quaritch in Avatar, or Senator Palpatine in Star Wars? Wow, those reoccurring villains sure were spectacular!!
I’d recommend something like the Amulet of the Planes. Reusable, easier for a party to try to steal mid combat, and if they try to interfere with the villain using it, the misfire could pull in the party as well allowing for a hook into a new adventure
I like Simulacrum spell to pull that off. Your villain saw how the simulacrum fought via Scrying and now the next encounter with the villain will be an upgraded version.
For us or dm made him show up everytime we nearly died. Mocking us and waiting. Considering when we killed him a whole was burned right through his chest. Sure he wasn’t an actual enemy but it was really nice re-seeing him. And great motivation not to die
Or even maybe after the dude died in another campaign, a dude resereked the bbeg as a spirt and he helps the the dead bbeg to rule or something like that
I actually used the idea of the Stalker like monster that revives that you created and put some twist on it. I think its also a great way to implement that kind of idea especially when you have a character with a bounty on their heads
Insert that one villain who kept funding other evil guys who kept running away when ever the party found him to a point where they literally had to stop time to catch him, and even then it was because they rolled well as he also had counters to time shenanigans
I like Rivals as recurring threats. They are your enemy but there's always a way out for them. I like them because when party members start to die after climactic fights, this rival returning and seeing someone he liked facing off against not there adds both drama and tragedy. "Where's the Dragonborn? I have a debt to pay him back for the scars from last time" *the Dragonborn fighter died in the party's mid-adventure climax, alongside another PC and this moment has now reminded everyone about it as to let the tragedy linger*
I wound up making not one, but 2 reoccurring villains in a single session that I've had great fun with since. Party had key that baddies needed. Encounter them on the road. One was a devil I intended to be a reoccurring villain the party managed to kill fine. They later learned he survived when they broke into an enemy base and saw him and the BBEGs teleporting away. The other one was a cheeky water based mage I threw together 15 mins before session. They escaped the fight nearly unarmed, and the party was PISSED. I ended up turning them into a enemy lieutenant that they've fought twice more, and even had to work with once too.
Or simply, if they don't kill them. One of my enemies in my D20 modern campaign was simply too high leveled, but when they blew up the train, they COULD have stopped him from escaping, possibly...But then they'd have to deal with him right there and then. Saving it for another day!
Another thing about this is the fact that they've ran away from a lot of situations, or simply not every fight is to the death. People don't just murder murder murder, their goal is to get what they need, and a lot of people won't necessarily die for what they're protecting. Having all your enemies willing to die makes things boring, you know?
I had a literal immortal villain. He could be defeated but always came back. My party was frustrated because they wondered how? It wasn't until they killed him for like the 5th time that they decided to remove the helmet and see he was a skeleton Lich/Death Knight with immortality the whole time. He then revived on the spot and almost killed all of them before he was defeated then the party ran away. They regretted staying to find out his identity.
I took inspiration from the Shadow of Mordor game and had a guy with a gravewalker sort of ability, so the challenge was less killing him because he wasn't too difficult to beat and more finding out how to make him stay dead
My personal favorite example was a prostetic arm. Yes. You heard me right. It was a cursed artifact that acted out the vengance of a tomb that the party had robbed. In order, it would seek a host who was close to the party, then it woukd change fate itself to give the person a need for a prostetic, then it would attach itself and corrupt the mind of it's host. The setting was kinda dark, a lot of soldiers woukd be caught in explsions and the like, meaning there was no way to tell who was corrupted until it was too late. It ended when the party set a trap with an npc who had betrayed them, sealing them and the prostetic in a max security prison. For the time being.
Every time a DM pulls some shit like this with a reoccurring villain I just put my hands on my sides like a plumber and be like "Ah shit! This is gonna bite us in the ass down the line I just know it"
i have a higher level campaign in the works that involves the ancient red dragon that attacked waterdeep twice in the past. cause as a dracolich it has a phylactery, so it’s back, but this time it’s been hiding out in the shadowfell. so while the players have never actually fought it before it’s still kind of a reoccurring villain because they know the story and the legend behind it and have a damn good reason to fight it.
Reminds me of an idea i had for an enemy called Fenton. he is a very large black half Dragon sheep who had his draconic lineage awakened when a demon gave dragonic lineage and a alot of demonic power to the backup sacrifice. The idea os that Fenton isn't killed in the first few encounters he gets away and in the final showdown with him after he is killed his body turns to Ash. He didn't die is used a spell to replace his body with one of his flock who then combusted upon being killed.
I’m using the “plot turn” method. Not a dm, but my character comes with his own quest line and villains. The idea is to have a villain, slay them in the epic fight, have a party, focus on other things for some time and then suddenly get the info that the dude we slayed was just a tool or cover of a more powerful foe
Another good way of doing this is by using the previous bbeg to introduce a new bbeg, lets say a lich they ressurect the previous bbeg to torment the party or to be sent as a message that they are not to be messed with because they can easily ressurect someone they struggled to fight in the past
"sOmEhOw, PaLpAtInE hAs ReTuRnEd"
- Disney
Good, someone already made the joke.
Death is a concept made up by Jedi
"iT'S BasEd On A CoMiC tHaT's nO LonGeR CanNoN"
-Some hardcore Star Wars fan who also liked the sequels
@@artcasual99 ray doesn't even exist Disney just added her
@@aroma7 I know I was talking about the whole Palpatine uses clones to survive thing
What about if they shout "I'll get you next time [insert party name]!" and escape in a comically embarrassing way?
They open the scroll, and trips over it
**Pulls out scroll clothing diapers** "Not Again!" **Pulls out second scroll**
Then they will be immediately adopted by the party after some INSANE nat 20 persuasion checks and the power of friendship
@@nbsprivet9138
Party: join us
Villain: your going to have to try harder than that to convince me
Party: do it
Villain: okie dokie
I'm making skeletor and none of you can stop me.
The icecream truck passed my house right as the video was ending and I was graced with the lines “watch the horror in his eyes” accompanied by the happiest music I’d ever heard
Well that's fucking terrifying
Jesus Christ is Lord. Please read at least three books of the Bible. The first book of each testament and one you chose yourself. As you do practice forgiveness. It is important
@@jamesmayle3787 the bible has some badass quotes in it and a guy who cut 200 foreskins off of 200 men to get a woman
@@jamesmayle3787 Hey man that's cool and all, but i can't seem to find who asked
@@jamesmayle3787 [[The Big One]] IS HERE! PRAISE HIM AND MAY YOU AS WELL BECOME [[Big]] WITH [[Eternal Death]]
"Foolish heroes, I'll get you next time!"
"..."
"..."
"The uh-scroll...didn't uh-work"
Yeah. OK fireball fire!
@@thedbdentity2102 pk fire pk fire pk fire
@@willisstupid6782 hehe super armor go brrrrrrr
@@camdaman9857 heha funny flat guy 9 hammer go pinggggg
Except the scroll does work unless you're changing the rules
"How are you still alive?"
William Afton: "Because fuck you, that's why"
Lol
Michael Afton: father it's me. It's Michael, and I will stop you.
Damn burntrap/springtrap
@@Dark_3333 you forgot Scraptrap.
@@carlenecolson7204 We don't talk about Scraptrap
a good thing to avoid it “somehow palpatine survived”
I would also recommend Revenants. Revenants are REALLY fun to run.
They doesn't make sense
@@zelord5080 doesn't make it any less fun
@@zelord5080 revenants are effectively dead people who self revive because they spite somebody, and they will literally pursue people for a full year as if they were alive until the double tap is secured.
Even more so of you make them immune to the last thing that killed them
@@Gamer_G33k A Doomsday style villain? Classic
Players: heals 6405871 times
Enemy: Heals once
Players: HAX!
I got such a pissed off look when I did that as a DM. I had the villain's top lieutenant attack the party to cover the villain and some other lackeys retreat from the stronghold. Well I have told my players I don't always play important fights with the "Hit 0 and they are dead" rule that we use most of the time for mobs, random encounters on the road sure but important set piece fights its a normal fight. So I had the top lieutenant be a cleric and had his spell list all set up. He was a healing and cc focused cleric and he used his spells accordingly. He has three people with him two fighters and a warlock all suitable levels for the party to fight.
The moment they dropped one of the fighters to low health (not quiet death but close) and the cleric used his readied action to cast Cure critcal Wounds (Now the players knew they were expected, and I had used up two of the casters 3rd level spells to use Sacred Bond on both Fighters so he could heal them at range) they got very upset that I had the cleric healing his wounded minions when they just spent all that time and resources to drop the guy. Who they did eventually beat of course but he nearly dropped one of them.
They where shocked I had the bad guys healing themselves and not just letting their HP drop.
@@TheLastSane1 over my time as a player, I’ve realized that Bosses and their Highest Lieutenants having only 1 or 2 Common, Uncommon, or MAYBE Rare Health Potions doesn’t feel too annoying because they can’t spam them Pokémon Elite Four-style, but having thematically-fitting abilities to heal them just a bit while maybe also giving them a tiny buff for 1 Round can make the fight much more interesting and fun!
@@SoaringEagle128 Which elite four did this?I havent played a lot of the more recent games but I know the classic elite four didnt.
Best fun I've had with it is when the BBEG came up multiple times, escaped each time, then found some common ground with the party against the BBBEG _and joins their side_
BBEG found common ground against the BBEG?
@@skapunker96 lol sorry that wasn't clear. BBBEG = _bigger_ big bad evil guy 😆
@@opus5770 ohh. Got it lol. That sounds pretty cool though; it's a nice twist for sure. Being able to turn the BBEG but not nullifying the main threat completely I'd pretty satisfying and doesn't come off as anticlimactic; reminds me of Dragon Age Origins.
@@skapunker96 awesome, I haven't played DAO but I've heard good things! My inspiration for that scenario was from Final Fantasy 9-one of the recurring enemies switches to the party's side, which was such a great and dramatic turn! Have you played it?
Same happens in chrono trigger if you ever played it there is a threat to the planet and magus is trying to summon them then there are a few battles then you get an option to battle them or have them join and they are a good character to have with high pdmg and mdmg and hp and mp tried to avoid spoilers Incase you haven't seen the story or played the game and it's best blind
The fact that you always use Runescape music has me in love with your videos lol
I cant hear him speak over my childhood killing goblins between lumbridge and al kharid
I think half the reason i subscribed was the RuneScape background music
I’ll give this a try when I can!
To quote Zee Bashew, “If it was easy to kill a high-level Necromancer, you didn’t kill them.” They’ve 100% got a bunch of clones stored up somewhere. Be neat if it started as an easy combat and they got harder and harder as the Necromancer adapted to the players’ strategies, and started running out of clones (they do take a while to grow.)
Another good way to make your villain "recurring" is to not have them _actually_ appear, have them be mentioned or make contact with the party, make them one-too-many steps ahead of the party and have them have a hand in as much as reasonably possible
My DM did this last campaign with Agni- a Demon Prince disguised as a wine merchant and inspired by Gaunter O'Dimm
Bastard was _everywhere,_ so much of the story just tied back to him in increasingly creative and surprising ways
I once played a campaign where our party noticed a swirling mist from time to time in various locations, only realizing later that it was a mage using Gaseous Form. By that point, he already knew everything we did, and had seen us fighting. Gooood times, it was so unexpected
@@opus5770 ooo that's clever
@@Konpekikaminari yeah, fun times!
I mean, with your Royal Incinerator that I'm using in my campaign, I think that's a damn good reason
Laughs in defibrillator hands
Ring of teleportation that breaks just before the final blow to remove the villain from harm...
I imagine a villain that has many contingency plans but always ends up with some battle scar after facing the party like they are drove to a Cliff side where they are hanging on to the side and as someone takes the last swing at them they drop cutting off their arm only to come back with a new mechanical next time
This reminds me of shadow of war
I once made a villain that was a psychic snail and used illusions to make small enemies appear, while "attacking" with magic as the illusions attacked. The illusions were "So real" (due to bad rolls) that the snail continued to live after each encounter. And every time he appeared I made the joke "You killed my father, prepare to die" even tho it was the same snail. Though the players never knew this.
How many times did they encounter him? And hust how bad was your players perception (or luck) that they didn't notice they where fighting illusions for what I am assuming was atleast 3 encounters?
@@hanzzel6086It waa 4 times, they were very unlucky with their rolls. The last time was during a boss battle where the snail finally died.
@@ThomasNightingaleLaarhoven Lol, did you tell them after? And how did the snail die? The Bbg falling on him?
@@hanzzel6086 Well....the BBG ate the snail. As for if they ever found out? Like a month after XD.
@@ThomasNightingaleLaarhoven lol
See, this is how you introduce the aboleth family, that all have a perfect recollection of how you slaughtered big Toby and have been prepping to ice you.
And don't do it too often. If damn near every enemy just escapes (teleports, disappears, flies/swims away) it just feels tedious
The Main BBEGs in the campaign I run and their siblings are of a Homebrew race to where they posses bodies of those that attune to their artifacts over time. When they kill the person wielding their item, they only kill the body they were using. Reason for this is because they can no longer manifest their actual bodies with all of their powers in the material plane. If they do, it is to interact a small bit physically with some objects. (Though this only happens if part of their plane is in the area/ a crack in reality)
For the most part their actual bodies that can be killed are in the Astral Plane/ a Dream Like plane to where they can bring those that are asleep their while they rest to speak to them.
We had this character who was a friend to the party but him and the wizard got drunk and the wizard stabbed his eye out with a wand of magic missile, he came back in the next campaign as a demilitch and was hilariously easy to defeat but his spirit kept haunting the party, but every time his spirit came back he would just whine and sulk about not being able to get revenge
"uuuuuuugh come ooooon, just dieeeee already"
I can't help but think of the funi purple "I always come back" rabbit man
Great idea:
Everytime the party kills a "big good guy", they get haunted by them. Then at the campaign's end, bring em all back
"And I would've gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids, and that dumb dog!"
Mess with Scooby Doo and you get the Scooby-Bang!
A crazed orc named Brûz that follows the party through campaigns
That sounds like great campaign music. Something that would take like 5000 hours to finish.
Always have a goblin or Cobalt named Jerry that seems to follow around some of the bad guys. Trust me the love jerry, the one that adopt Jerry don't let them adopt Jerry. Let them see what they cannot have!
It’s like when Colm O’Driscol in rdr2 realises he’s not getting out of getting hanged, that feeling of finally getting him felt so good
I did a cowboy that use invisibility for running away, last time My players summon a Lot of mefits to stop him
I love your videos there so helpful as a beginner dm!
Dude the RuneScape background music brings back good memories.
That one menace that manipulated good people into being the "bad guys" and baited the heroes, just to at least kill or give a nasty scar to one of them: *Maniacal laughter intensifies.*
The music as you talk about this... *Nomad flashbacks*
The party assaults a bandit camp, the bandit leader is a warlock. They come back as a revenant
Gosh that theme music. Reminds me of my childhood
I believe that necromancers have a very good spell for this.
Clone is broken is given enough prep time!
Joker: my insanity is keeping me alive.
Something in my experience you don't wanna do, is make a habit of important villains getting ex machina'd out of deathly situations
Players killed BBEG on their first encounter with her. They realized her bounty was worth more alive than dead so they used Revivify after making sure she couldn't attack
Another thing that I have done that I feel is a fun way to have a reoccurring villain, is either they do make a great escape, there's a way to clone them, or kind of like how shadow of war does it make them come back but now they're changed, perhaps deformed in some way and now have a different way they attack. I do think that limiting that villain to maybe only being the bad guy for a few levels at a time is probably good. And making sure they have a solid send-off is a way to end that reoccurring villain.
I don't know if it was this channel or another one, but I heard a super good idea that I plan on using for my campaign where there is like an intermediary between life and death (name is optional) where the players enter after death and instead of fighting to return, they have to travel through a false reality, slowly finding all their weapons and armor and such until they come to one final character, the only one that appears in all the players' distinct realities. This character recognizes the inherent good in the party, contrasts it with the villain, and then offers up some reason to prevent the villain from ever returning from death. It's a really good idea (that, again, isn't mine) that heavily introduces the players to the idea of consequences and even death within a regular playthrough, but still offers new DMs like myself a safety blanket from TPKs.
The bandit you disintegrate while testing the new spell megadestruction came back for the dead for random magic powers beyond any comprehension
So... I had a player bring an Evil character to my first session, over time we realised that character really didn't fit well with the rest of the party(obviously because he wanted to help Orcus destroy everything)
So now, his new character is joining the party after that character just left without a trace, stupid stealth score on a paladin, so now he is going to be a problem for later in the story
I've never understood players who make edge-lords they always seem very juvenile or almost comically over the top
That good shit is good old school runescape playing in the background
I had a campaign where my reoccurring enemy was..... Cows. The players went out of there ways to first find two cows and kill them even when food was provided for them and then fought like 5 cows later that same session. The peace was only restored by one of the players, who wasn't part of what initially happened and hasn't fought any of the cows later on, befriending one of them, making both sides drop the bloodshed for the sake of there friendship
My players once snuck into a cultists hideout where their leader was creating powerful undead stitched together with animal parts. They got caught halfway through and after setting the sleeping quarters on fire with the cultists still inside. Released a half giant who’s legs where replaced with an elephants giving him a brutal charge attack. While the undead giant rampaged through the hideout they ambushed the cult leader and “broke his arms and legs so he’ll stop hitting us with fireballs”. Once they captured him they decided to bring him back to the nearby city for a reward. A city that currently had an army on its way to siege it. They got their reward and escaped the siege of the city but now have a very very pissed off cult leader in a steampunk wheelchair sending assassins after them.
“Usually, players don’t like having to kill something multiple time”
*Cough cough* William *cough cough* Afton
I would add: Give them a boost each time, like, an extra ability by the second fight
Reminded me of the nemesis system they use in shadow of Mordor. Kill them with fire and then they become like charred or become a fire creature when they come back
Shane the Shy is an excellent example of this
"How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man"
Him: make sure that there is a good reason that he's coming back
Bowser: my son and kamik on Reviving me
"The cultists unwinds a scroll and seems to ca-"
"Counterspell."
"-all out for his mother as the spell fizzles."
My party is dealing with a recurring villain, but they don't know it. They've met him a dozen times, they just don't know he's the BBEG. Because he's a Rakshasa occupying three different personalities and identities. When they finally realize he's the baddie and pin him down, they'll have a way to permakill him, and, hopefully, solve a lot of problems all at once.
The Cultists horror as he realizes that, not only has he been Counterspelled, but the fighter is next on the turn order and is stood right next to them.
"those who inhereted the curse of the zenin family and the one who couldn't fully leave that curse behind they would all bear witness to the bear flesh of someone who is free to the one who left it all behind and his overwhelming intensity"
I don’t play D&D for the lack of friends, but I feel like the lich from adventure time is a great example. I think his character is do great bc of one big fact, he doesn’t talk much, just mostly acts, but we know he can talk bc of his victims and talking too the protagonist. So much mystery.
The lich had ANOTHER phylactery and this one was even more secret than the last 5
The Lich name is Voldemort by the way, you destroyed his ring, diary, cup, amulet and his snake. It’s now like he has THAT much phylactery
Or just have them scream “CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS!!!”
My party just fought a boneclaw. He's comin back at least once
DIO: write that down! Write that down!
You mean like the way the recycled Miles Quaritch in Avatar, or Senator Palpatine in Star Wars? Wow, those reoccurring villains sure were spectacular!!
I’d recommend something like the Amulet of the Planes. Reusable, easier for a party to try to steal mid combat, and if they try to interfere with the villain using it, the misfire could pull in the party as well allowing for a hook into a new adventure
I like Simulacrum spell to pull that off. Your villain saw how the simulacrum fought via Scrying and now the next encounter with the villain will be an upgraded version.
For us or dm made him show up everytime we nearly died. Mocking us and waiting. Considering when we killed him a whole was burned right through his chest. Sure he wasn’t an actual enemy but it was really nice re-seeing him. And great motivation not to die
The best part is when the party refuses to believe their dead til they've seen the body, doubled checked and then burned it.
Or even maybe after the dude died in another campaign, a dude resereked the bbeg as a spirt and he helps the the dead bbeg to rule or something like that
"I ALWAYS COME BACK" - that one guy from fnaf
I actually used the idea of the Stalker like monster that revives that you created and put some twist on it. I think its also a great way to implement that kind of idea especially when you have a character with a bounty on their heads
Delilah in the corner of the room
I honestly want like a force of nature thing. Like the ghost of who they killed, taunts them and creates animosity from within instead of physical
THE RUNESCAPE MUSIC! I just took a Nat 20 Nostalgia Damage 😂
Breaking character here so I can do something...
"I ALWAYS COME BACK" - William Afton
Frieza be like: cyborg goes brrrr
"I always come back"
Insert that one villain who kept funding other evil guys who kept running away when ever the party found him to a point where they literally had to stop time to catch him, and even then it was because they rolled well as he also had counters to time shenanigans
My favorite one I’ve made was a Dr. Frankenstein type guy who would always come back with a new arm or head or wings sewn to his own body.
My DM killed my backup character and resurrected it to hunt me down.
I like Rivals as recurring threats. They are your enemy but there's always a way out for them. I like them because when party members start to die after climactic fights, this rival returning and seeing someone he liked facing off against not there adds both drama and tragedy.
"Where's the Dragonborn? I have a debt to pay him back for the scars from last time" *the Dragonborn fighter died in the party's mid-adventure climax, alongside another PC and this moment has now reminded everyone about it as to let the tragedy linger*
I wound up making not one, but 2 reoccurring villains in a single session that I've had great fun with since. Party had key that baddies needed. Encounter them on the road. One was a devil I intended to be a reoccurring villain the party managed to kill fine. They later learned he survived when they broke into an enemy base and saw him and the BBEGs teleporting away.
The other one was a cheeky water based mage I threw together 15 mins before session. They escaped the fight nearly unarmed, and the party was PISSED. I ended up turning them into a enemy lieutenant that they've fought twice more, and even had to work with once too.
Our BBEG just turns into a bird and leaves
Or simply, if they don't kill them. One of my enemies in my D20 modern campaign was simply too high leveled, but when they blew up the train, they COULD have stopped him from escaping, possibly...But then they'd have to deal with him right there and then. Saving it for another day!
Another thing about this is the fact that they've ran away from a lot of situations, or simply not every fight is to the death. People don't just murder murder murder, their goal is to get what they need, and a lot of people won't necessarily die for what they're protecting. Having all your enemies willing to die makes things boring, you know?
I had a literal immortal villain. He could be defeated but always came back. My party was frustrated because they wondered how? It wasn't until they killed him for like the 5th time that they decided to remove the helmet and see he was a skeleton Lich/Death Knight with immortality the whole time. He then revived on the spot and almost killed all of them before he was defeated then the party ran away. They regretted staying to find out his identity.
I took inspiration from the Shadow of Mordor game and had a guy with a gravewalker sort of ability, so the challenge was less killing him because he wasn't too difficult to beat and more finding out how to make him stay dead
You kill all the adds and then among the adds the next day you find "Bobby" one of the cultists from the previous day.
Ah, the runescape music is love
We accidentally derailed the Hoard of the Dragon Queen preset campaign
My personal favorite example was a prostetic arm. Yes. You heard me right.
It was a cursed artifact that acted out the vengance of a tomb that the party had robbed. In order, it would seek a host who was close to the party, then it woukd change fate itself to give the person a need for a prostetic, then it would attach itself and corrupt the mind of it's host.
The setting was kinda dark, a lot of soldiers woukd be caught in explsions and the like, meaning there was no way to tell who was corrupted until it was too late.
It ended when the party set a trap with an npc who had betrayed them, sealing them and the prostetic in a max security prison. For the time being.
How to create a recurring villan
Me: Dio brando
When "Gilmore" stabs Vax... so good.
"They attack a cultist base but one manages to escape with a plane shift scroll"
Father Pucci?
chuckles the clown moment
William: "i always come back"
Scott cawthon:"uhhhmmmm he- he just comes back okay-
Every time a DM pulls some shit like this with a reoccurring villain I just put my hands on my sides like a plumber and be like "Ah shit! This is gonna bite us in the ass down the line I just know it"
i have a higher level campaign in the works that involves the ancient red dragon that attacked waterdeep twice in the past. cause as a dracolich it has a phylactery, so it’s back, but this time it’s been hiding out in the shadowfell. so while the players have never actually fought it before it’s still kind of a reoccurring villain because they know the story and the legend behind it and have a damn good reason to fight it.
Reminds me of an idea i had for an enemy called Fenton. he is a very large black half Dragon sheep who had his draconic lineage awakened when a demon gave dragonic lineage and a alot of demonic power to the backup sacrifice. The idea os that Fenton isn't killed in the first few encounters he gets away and in the final showdown with him after he is killed his body turns to Ash. He didn't die is used a spell to replace his body with one of his flock who then combusted upon being killed.
Resident Evil 6 brining back a boss over and over for each story
I’m using the “plot turn” method. Not a dm, but my character comes with his own quest line and villains. The idea is to have a villain, slay them in the epic fight, have a party, focus on other things for some time and then suddenly get the info that the dude we slayed was just a tool or cover of a more powerful foe
"Its not the DM that makes a good villain, it's the players."
- Some D&D person
Another good way of doing this is by using the previous bbeg to introduce a new bbeg, lets say a lich they ressurect the previous bbeg to torment the party or to be sent as a message that they are not to be messed with because they can easily ressurect someone they struggled to fight in the past
I love the OSRS menu music